And james w



(No Model.)

R. G. VALENTINE.

BOX STRAP.

No. 342,942. Y Patented June 1, 1886.

$5 f I off-' 3 j 0 I JZQUGTLZOTJ 7 said corrugation.

IlrvrTnn STATES PATENT Orrtcn.

ROBERT G. VALENTINE, OF FLATBUSH, ASSIGNOR OF TYVO-THIRDS TO BRENT GOOD, OF NFNV YORK, AND JAMES \V. GOOD, OF BROOKLYN, N. Y.

BOX-STRAP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 342,942, dated June 1, 1886.

Application filed February 2, 1886. Serial No. 190,580.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT G. VALENTINE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Flatbush, Kings county, New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Box-Straps, of which the following is aspecification.

The object of my invention is to make a boxstrap that will prevent boxes to which it is applied from being opened without that fact escaping notice; and to this end my invention consists in combining with an ordinary iron wire an adj ustable tin check or slide, constructed substantially as described, which can be shifted to any position desired and there nailed to the box around which the iron wire is placed.

In the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, Figure lrepresentsa perspective view of a box with my invention applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a view of one of the checks or slides before its application to a wire, and Fig. 3 is a view showing a slide closed over a wire.

I use for wire to encircle or surround the box to be strapped any ordinary iron wire, A, of suiiicient pliability to bend readily around the edges of the box. In combination with such a wire I use a tin check or slide, B, to be nailed to the box or case. This tin check I make, preferably, of the configuration illustrated; but as its form may be varied to a considerable extent I do not desire to limit myself strictly to the form shown. Near each end of the check or slide a hole, 0, is made, through which the nail D is driven, which secures said slide in place. The check or slide may be used flat, as shown in part of Fig. 1, or it may be bent over onto itself with the wire resting in the fold of the same, as shown in another part of said figure. The slide, as will be readily seen, is adjustable on the wire, and can be shifted to any place on the same where it is desirable that a nail should be driven to se cure the slide and wire to the box. hen the slide is usedflat, the wire may rest in a groove in the box, so that said check or slide will lie close to the box. Instead of this, the slide may have a single transverse corrugation, and the wire resting on top of the box may lie in I prefer, however, not to (No model.)

use the check in the flat condition, but to bend it over onto itself, in which form it may more properly be styled a slide, although I intend this term to apply as well to the check in its fiat form. WVhen I use the folded-over slide, I preferably secure the same to the box alternately on opposite sides of the wire, as shown. The nail which secures the strap to the box is placed at some distance from the draw the nail without injuring or breaking the slide. If any nail-drawing instrument should be used under the slide in order to draw the nail, it would result in breaking the tin slide, and this would furnish evidence that the box had been tampered with. To

attempt to draw the nail by inserting a lever under the wire would be equally fatal to the integrity of the slide. To afford still greater security against unauthorized opening of the box, I cut or indent or perforate each slide near its holes, so that when the securingnail is driven home the part E within the cuts, indentations, or perforations is depressed by the head of the nail below the level of the outer portion, G, thus entirely preventing the insertion of any nail-extracting tool under the head of the nail, and if such a tool should be inserted under the slide the latter would be ruptured, because the cuts, indentations, or

perforations H have weakened the same. I

may also extend the cuts or indentations along the sides of the slides, as shown in the drawings, so that the insertion of a nail-extracting tool at any point is sure to result in the mutilation of the slide. circling the box are passed by each other for a greater or less distance, and are bent at right angles at about one-half an inch or more from their ends and driven into the wood of the box. I are driven into the box a slide or slides are nailed down, thus preventing the withdrawal of the wire.

The advantages I claim for this improved box-strap are that its slides are adjustable on the wire, whereby the places for driving nails may be selected, instead of being arbitrarily The ends of the wire en- 0 Close to the place where the bent ends 5 fixed, as is the case with the wire box-straps with which I am familiar, and that after the slide is nailed down the nail cannot be removed without mutilating or completely destroying 5 the said strap.

By using this box-strap on a box it is impossible to remove anything therefrom without mntilating the straps and thus furnishing evidence of an unauthorized opening of the IO box during transportation.

i5 This is easily done with the ordinary wood or twisted-iron-wire strap without leaving any evidence ofsuch abstraction; but with the box-v strap herein described the customer receiving the goods can protect himself by inspecting the 20 box or case before giving receipt to the transportation company therefor, and refusing to I accept the same when the tin slides are broken, showing that the box has been tampered with.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

1. The combination, with a wire,of a metal slide perforated for the passage of securing means and cut, perforated, or indented near said first-named perforations, substantially as described.

2. A metal slide perforated for the passage of securing means and weakened adjacent to said perforations, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

ROBERT G. VALENTINE.

\Vitnesses:

H. O. HEBBARD. W M. O. BnnRENs. 

